News and Events

"Did you have a good break?" This is one of the questions that we in the Drexel University community will greet each other with when we return to campus or to our virtual classes in January. Whether we've gone back home to spend holiday time with our family members, traveled and toured with old friends or met new ones, or stayed near campus to study and recharge our academic batteries, we're all able to provide a quick assessment of our break time—and hopefully a positive answer to the question. But how do we know so quickly? Typically, because we know what break time is for (our mission), how we hoped to spend our break time (our vision), and what evidence there is of our success (our metrics). The Libraries, like the University, increasingly uses these same points in our own assessments. Before we start an improvement project, we weigh the investment of our resources (time and costs) against the benefits we hope to reap (saving your time, saving the University money, or saving staff time on one function in order to extend human resources elsewhere). After the project is launched, we can review our metrics to see how we impact our resources and services in the positive way we envisioned.

Over the past six months, we've shared news here of the Libraries' initiatives and our vision for improving services to users. We hope you are enjoying the results - whether they are:

• the "one-stop" access to library assistance via chat services or at our W.W. Hagerty Library circulation desk
• the ability to manage your course reserves directly (as a faculty member) or to connect via your Blackboard class shell to electronic versions of articles on Reserve (as a student)
• increased access (fewer access interruptions) to online databases
• the option to borrow a laptop any time of day or night from our 24/7 kiosk in the Bookmark Café (starting December 4th.)
• the new scanner at Hahnemann Library
  

Saving time and simplifying your work are among our major service goals, and your input is one of our important metrics for success. We hope you will let us know how we are doing and what you'd like to see for upcoming changes!

John Wiggins
Director, Library Services & Quality Improvement